Hardback – ragglefragglereviews

Let me be completely honest I was afraid for this show, an adaptation of the book series by Lemony Snicket had been done in the past in the form of a movie starring Jim Carrey and even though the film was somewhat entertaining and Jim Carrey gave one of the best performances of his career, the film was a terrible adaptation of the books and this was one of the many reasons why it bombed and none of the planned sequels were ever released.

This time the notorious Count Olaf is portrayed by the multi-talented actor Neil Patrick Harries who does a fantastic portrayal of the Count, Jim Carrey gave a more serious and sinister version of Count Olaf while Neil Patrick Harries gives a more silly and comical peformace while still managing to remain threatening and scary enough to help the show remain family friendly, the rest of the main cast are also very well portrayed and the actors and actresses who play each role put a lot of effort and love into their peformances, the show so far has shown a few other famous faces aside from Neil Patrick Harries including Patrick Warburton who plays Lemony Snicket and Joan Cusack who plays Justice Strauss, cast members who are less experienced in acting also do a fantastic job at playing their assigned characters but out of the entire cast my favourite actor was Louis Hynes who plays Klaus, i found that he was very similar to the character in the books and I cant wait to see more of his work in the later seasons.

Speaking of the books the TV show is such an impressive adaptation that I only noticed very few differences between the two, the first season of the show covers the first four books which are spread over eight episodes, at first I was concerned because I didnt believe that two episodes per book was enough to cover everything but I was wrong because now that I have watched the first season several times I have to agree that two was more than enough, the show is much more light hearted than the books which is understandable as the books can at times be a little much esspecially for very young readers but I honestly believe that it would be fine for any one to watch the show no matter what age they are.

It was very difficult for me to talk about this without giving away any spoilers but I am pleased that I got the chance to share my thoughts, if you would like to see the first review of the books I wrote you can do so by clicking on this link.

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2016/10/31/book-review-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-1-3-by-lemony-snicket/

What did you think of this latest adaptation of a Series of Unfortunate Events?

You can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

harry

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was the first book in a long and beloved series of books written by one of the greatest authors of our generation JK Rowling shot-a-014n

I cant imagine that anyone one on the planet doesn’t know the story of Harry Potter but just to be safe the first book is about an eleven year old boy who suffers tremendous abuse from both his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon who legally became his guardians after his parents Lily and James were killed by an evil Wizard known as Lord Voldermort, Voldermort tries to kill Harry as a baby but Harry survives hence why he is known as the boy who lived, while he grows up with the Dursleys who make him sleep under the stairs, praise their other son Dudley for hurting him and are genuinely terrible people, the only surviving memory Harry has of his parents is a lighting bolt shaped scar on his forehead that he was left with after the attack.

After receiving countless mysterious letters in the mail all of which are destroyed by his Uncle, Harry eventually finds out that he is a wizard and is sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry so that he can learn to become the legendary hero he was born to be, by now we have been introduced to one of the most important characters of the franchise Hagrid the grounds keeper and not too long after that we meet some of the other very important characters including Hermione Granger an intelligent but rather bossy young witch, Ronald Weasley who is very clumsy but has a good heart, Draco Malfoy the snobby school bully who thinks that his family is better than everyone else, Neville Longbottom who is the most important character in the franchise other than Harry but we will get to that another day, Severus Snape a potions master who really dislikes Harry, Albus Dumbledore the Head Master of the school and most importantly in this book is Professor Quirrell a seemingly nervous wreck of teacher who stutters every sentence and is constantly on edge.

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Hogwarts has four school houses Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor each student is placed in one these houses depending on their personalities the bravest and most courageous students are placed in Gryffindor, the most knowledgeable and witty students are placed in Ravenclaw, the most caring and loyal of students are placed in Hufflepuff and the most ambitious students are placed in Slytherin but a clever detail JK Rowling has hinted at in the series is that Gryffindor is the only house you can choose to join since you have to choose to be brave and if you have seen the movie or read the book then you know that this small detail plays a very important part in the Harry Potter story.

While on break after learning new spells and how to make potions Harry, Ron and Hermione accidentally enter a forbidden area on the fourth floor corridor and what they find behind the door is what leads them to start trying to unravel the mystery of the Philosophers Stone and who they believe may be trying to steal it.

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone is one of the most important books in existence, not only was it the start of Harry’s journey into becoming a wizard but more importantly it was the start of JK Rowlings journey of becoming one of the most influential writers of all time.

This is a fantastic book, its well written to point where JK Rowling doesn’t explain things in a lot of detail so the reader is able to use their imagination to create a vision of the magical world in their own minds instead of how the author sees it, the characters are perfect you will find Hermione annoying just like Ron does but you will learn to warm up to her through out the book, Draco Malfoy and Dursleys are all really unlikable and you will hate them which is great because you are supposed to dislike them and Albus Dumbledore really does seem like a very wise old wizard who has a unique perspective on life,however there are one or two plot holes in this first installment but obviously due to spoilers I won’t go into them, if you are unsure as to whether you want to check out the Harry Potter books this is a really good place to start because not only is it the first of the franchise but its also the shortest and in my personal opinion one of the very best.

Thank you for reading this review of Harry Potter and Philosophers Stone by JK Rowling

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

and yes Christmas reviews are coming, I promise 🙂